


Sleeping Eyes and Dreaming Hearts

by miraculouslarrypotter



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, LadyNoir - Freeform, Miraculous Ladybug - Freeform, ladrien, miraculous - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 01:46:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18488767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculouslarrypotter/pseuds/miraculouslarrypotter
Summary: Written by K





	Sleeping Eyes and Dreaming Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Written by K

Ladybug was sure of two things.

The first: Just a second ago she had been running through the streets of Paris, trying to find where the latest akuma had disappeared to.

The second: Now she found herself in a forest surrounded by a multitude of trees that could easily rival the height of any given building in Paris.

She had about a split second to survey her new surroundings before a piercing shriek rang out from somewhere deep in the forest. Ladybug jumped, chills shooting through her entire body like electricity.

“LADYBUG HELP ME!”

She couldn’t breathe. Her legs went numb and she stumbled forward, catching herself on the trunk of a tree.

_Adrien._

His shrieks were suddenly the only sounds that echoed in the forest. She could feel the vibrations in the tree as the pitch of his voice scraped across her vision. A wave of nausea washed over her and suddenly the akuma wasn’t a priority anymore. She bolted into a sprint, running faster than she ever had in her life.

“ADRIEN! WHERE ARE YOU? ADRIEN!? ADRIEN!” Ladybug screamed.

She frantically looked around, waiting for the sound of his screams to get louder or quieter, but they were  _everywhere_. They echoed in her skull until she felt like her head was going to explode. Tears streamed down her face as she pulled out her yo-yo and began swinging from branch to branch.

“LADYBUG! LADYBUG HELP ME-LADYBUG! AAAAH! WHERE ARE YOU?! LADYBUG, HELP ME PLEASE! LADYBUG!”

Adrien’s cries cut right through Ladybug’s chest; agony dripped off every scream that rippled through the forest and she couldn’t stop the stream of tears that clouded her vision. Suddenly, his cries turned to sobs and Ladybug lost her grip on the string. She crashed against a tree and hit the ground, hard. Rolling over, she fought against the blackness that threatened to consume her consciousness. She stood up, using a tree as support, but was nearly knocked down again by another heart-wrenching screech.

_“LADYBUG!”_

“WHERE ARE YOU? ADRIEN? ADRIEN!!!”

She sprinted forward again, screaming out his name while running deeper into the forest.

  

* * *

 

Chat Noir tried to jump in front of the akuma’s blast, but he’d been a split second too slow. It hit Ladybug square between her shoulder blades and he barely had time to jump up and catch her before she hit the ground. It was only when he tried to stand her back up that he realized the blast had knocked her unconscious.

_Well, this isn’t good_ , Chat Noir thought, quickly picking her up and using his baton to propel them away from the akumatized victim. He landed and jogged across the roofs of Paris, carrying Ladybug close to his chest and scanning the area for a secluded alley. As he jogged, he noticed that nothing really seemed wrong with her besides the fact that she was unconscious. Maybe this was another sleeping-themed akuma? Chat prepared himself to leap across a gap in the roofs when suddenly Ladybug jerked in his arms and screamed “ADRIEN! WHERE ARE YOU? ADRIEN!? ADRIEN!”

Chat nearly toppled over. He came incredibly close to dropping Ladybug, but he made himself fall backward instead. Shocked, he frantically studied Ladybug’s face and found agony and despair written all over it. She was jerking slightly in his arms and then he watched in horror as she began to sob. Her eyebrows knit together as she screamed out “WHERE ARE YOU? ADRIEN? ADRIEN!!!”

“Ladybug, I’m—HE’S safe! Adrien is okay!” Chat cried, resting her body in his lap and shaking her shoulders. “Wake up! He’s all right!”

But Ladybug remained unconscious, sobbing and slightly jerking in his lap. Chat could feel himself beginning to panic and decided that the akuma could wait for now. They’d only hit a few other victims, and if it did turn out to be a sleeping akuma, Ladybug’s power would fix everything in the end anyway. That was, if he could even save Ladybug from whatever this akuma blast was doing to her.

Chat moved himself and Ladybug behind a chimney and closed his eyes.

_Think…what can I do? Is there anything I can do? Even if I did release the akuma by myself, the only thing I can do is Cataclysm. I can’t cleanse the akuma or put everything back to normal. Only Ladybug can do that! But I wonder if…maybe…_

“Claws in” Chat said, and he transformed back into Adrien. He pulled out a piece of camembert.

“Plagg,” he started, “I need you to take me to Master Fu.”

 

* * *

  

Chat Noir knocked on the door of the infamous Master Fu, surprised by how close he actually lived to him.

“Come in, Chat Noir”

Chat opened the door and it was all he could do to stop himself from having a mental breakdown right then and there.

“Ladybug, she—an akuma blast hit her—I thought she was fine but she’s not fine beca—”

“ADRIEN!!!”

Chat Noir and Master Fu both jumped, and Chat looked at him pleadingly. Fu motioned for him to set Ladybug on the pillows in front of him so that he could examine her condition more fully. While he did so, Chat explained the situation.

“I think the akuma is something sleep-related and she is having a nightmare” Chat explained, “but I don’t think there’s a way to wake her up. I don’t even know what exactly she’s dreaming about! All I know is that every time she screams out my name, my  _real_  name, like that, it destroys me.”

Chat took a breath and closed his eyes, trying not to ponder too deeply what kind of nightmare Ladybug could be having to make her so concerned over Adrien.

“I’ve been trying to call out to her but that hasn’t helped. Even if I were to release the akuma with my cataclysm, we would still need Ladybug to cleanse it. And she won’t be out of this state until the akuma is cleansed. So, I was thinking…”

Chat paused to make sure what he was about to suggest wouldn’t sound crazy.

“When I was turned to gold by Style Queen, Plagg was able to help Ladybug by using the power of destruction without me. So…I was wondering if Ladybug’s kwami would be able to do the same thing?”

Master Fu thought about it for a moment before saying “That could work. Tikki would need to be very careful, but if done correctly, the akuma would be cleansed and everything would be put back to normal.”

Chat Noir let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. So his idea wasn’t out of the question. That was good. Also, now he knew the name of Ladybug’s kwami.

“Can you take Ladybug in the back room? I need to remove her earrings so her transformation can drop and so Tikki can go with you.”

That was something that Chat Noir had somehow failed to consider.  _Of course_  Tikki going with him meant the removal of Ladybug’s earrings and thus her identity being just within his reach. His heartbeat quickened at this realization, and as he scooped her up to take her in the back room like Master Fu asked, he couldn’t get the thought out of his mind.

Chat set Ladybug back on the ground and stood there, frozen in place, wondering who she might be, just as he had done so many times before. He couldn’t know. He knew that, and he understood exactly why he couldn’t, but that didn’t change the fact that he would always long to know the identity of the girl behind the mask.

Master Fu gave him a look and Chat Noir sighed.

“I know, I’ll be in the other room,” Chat said as he closed the door behind him.

A moment later he saw the pink flash under the door signifying the dropped transformation. Master Fu re-entered the room, and Chat focused on keeping his eyes away from the door. But Fu was not alone.

Tikki flitted over to Chat. “Hello, Chat Noir! I’m Tikki, Ladybug’s kwami. It’s nice to meet you in person!”

_Cute_  was the first thing that came to mind when Chat saw Tikki, but he knew not to be fooled; this was the god of creation and she was going to be able to help him defeat the akuma and help save Ladybug. Chat couldn’t be more grateful or more ecstatic to meet the little god.

“Tikki…let’s do this!”

 

* * *

 

“Terrorizer,” as he called himself, was busy shooting black blasts from his hands at anyone he could find. Chat watched from the roof to see if he was terrorizing anyone specifically, but all the blasts seemed to be random. His eyes roved over Terrorizer, looking for anything that the akuma could be in. Suddenly, Terrorizer turned and shot a blast right for Chat Noir. He ducked, feeling the air from the blast ruffle his hair.

“You can’t fool me, Chat Noir, I can feel your terror from where I’m standing! I’m going to make you live your worst nightmare. But all that can be avoided if you and Ladybug give me your miraculous!” Terrorizer yelled, taking aim again.

“What a terrifying idea!” Chat Noir quipped as he jumped down and blocked the blast with his baton, “but I think I’m gonna have to pass!”

The akuma continued to shoot blasts at Chat Noir, all of which he successfully blocked with his baton. He was working furiously to keep the akuma’s attention solely toward him as to not direct him to the little red and black creature flitting around. Tikki had called upon the lucky charm on the roof – a potato sack – and was holding it, waiting for the perfect moment. While fending off the akuma, he was trying to think like Ladybug, trying to lure the akuma into their trap. First, though, he had to figure out where the akuma was hidden.

Chat felt his spirits dampen when he noticed that nothing in the akuma’s design seemed to stand out any more up close than it had from the roof.

_There must be something though!_

Then, as luck would have it, Chat noticed that what he previously thought was a plain black broach was actually a necklace, and that it slightly glowed each time the akuma released a blast from his hand.

Chat smiled and his next moves fell into place. He faked left and when Terrorizer reached out his hand to blast him, Chat dove back to the right and took off his own belt in one swift motion. At the same time that Terrorizer swung around toward the left to attempt to blast Chat again, Chat ducked and Tikki came from the opposite side and slid the potato sack over his hands. Then, Chat flung his belt around Terrorizer’s wrists, yanking on the leather and tightening the loop around his hands.

Chat reached out and held the necklace at the akuma’s neck between his fingers. With glee, Chat yelled “Cataclysm!” and watched the purple butterfly release as the necklace dissolved. He then focused his gaze on Tikki. He had seen what Plagg could do outside of the miraculous, but he was genuinely curious as to what Ladybug’s kwami could do.

Tikki flew up to where the butterfly was and put her hands together. Then she spread them apart to reveal a glowing white bubble of light that entrapped the akuma. Chat couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the pretty shining orb.

“Its time to de-evilize!” Tikki spoke out in her high pitched voice.

The bubble glowed white and burst into little shimmers of light before fading completely, leaving a white butterfly to flutter away.

Putting her hands together again, Tikki shut her eyes and her spots began to glow white. Throwing her hands in the air, she yelled “Miraculous Ladybug!” and thousands of magical ladybugs flew out of her arms, flying over Paris and restoring everything back to normal.

Tikki glanced over at Chat and winked before flying back up to the roof

_PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS!!! iiitttyyy bitty living space,_  Chat quoted to himself, imagining how the power of creation could fit in something so small.

He smiled and turned to the akuma, who had been transformed back into a kid who looked about 8 or 9. He was looking at Chat Noir, absolutely bewildered.

Chat Noir helped the kid to his feet, handing him the necklace.

“Chat Noir, where am I? What happened?”

“You were akumatized! But its okay now, we fixed everything”

“Oh…” the kid paused and looked around “But where’s Ladybug?” Then his eyes went huge. “Did I…”

Chat put on a smile “It’s okay, Ladybug is safe! Are you okay though?”

The kid glanced away and looked as though he was about to cry. Chat frowned. Whatever this kid had gotten akumatized for, he was obviously still troubled by it. Chat knelt down and peered at the kid, who didn’t meet Chat’s gaze. Chat didn’t want him to be vulnerable to Hawkmoth again.

“What’s wrong?” Chat gently prodded

“My mom…” Chat’s heart jolted, but the kid took a deep breath and tried to steady his voice.

“My mom is going on a business trip for 6 months and I’m terrified that I’ll never see her again.” He looked down at his feet before shakily whispering “It’s my worst fear.” Then he looked back up at Chat with tears in his eyes “And none of my friends understand. They all made fun of me for making a big deal out of it so I guess I wanted to make them see all their worst fears. I’m so sorry!” He cried, and then wrapped his arms around Chat “Thank you for saving me!”

Chat’s heart squeezed in his chest. He didn’t want to lose his mom. If there was anyone who could understand how this kid was feeling, it was him. The grief he had worked so hard to bury of having truly lost his own mother threatened to resurface. Chat took a deep breath.

“Your mom loves you very much, and if it’s a business trip, that means she’ll be able to come home at the end, and she’ll be so excited to see you.” Chat said, smiling and ruffling his hair. The kid started to smile.

“You think so?”

“I know so! Come on, let’s go find your parents”

Before they could start walking though, they both heard “Julien!” and the kid whipped his head around. A woman ran up to him and gathered him in his arms

“Oh, thank goodness you’re okay” The woman breathed. Then she looked up to Chat Noir. “Thank you,” she whispered, grasping her son tighter.

Chat smiled and nodded before using his baton to launch himself to the roof. He landed behind the chimney and slid down the wall, sighing as his transformation dropped. Plagg dropped into his open hands, eyeing him thoughtfully.

“You okay, kid?”

Adrien nodded, handing Plagg a piece of camembert. Tikki flitted over, her concern mirroring Plagg’s.

“Let’s go back to Master Fu’s” Adrien interjected before the kwamis had the chance to say more. Not only was he feeling weighed down with the past memories of his mother but he also felt paralyzed from the slow realization that Ladybug’s worst fear was somehow related to Adrien, who was, in fact, him.

 

* * *

 

Marinette opened her eyes to see a ceiling instead of the streets of Paris

“Oh, good, you’re awake!”

She raised up to see Master Fu watching her intently.

“Master Fu?” Marinette asked, “Why am I here? Last I remember I was standing on the streets of Paris fighting an akuma…but somehow I ended up here? What happened?”

And then Marinette realized she no longer felt the earrings in her ears. Panic threatened to rip through her.

“Where is Tikki? And Chat Noir? Are they both alright?”

Master Fu smiled. “They are both fine, and should be on their way back right now. And I have your earrings.”

He handed them to Marinette.

“You were hit by the akuma’s blast and knocked unconscious. Chat Noir couldn’t wake you up, so he brought you here and enlisted the help of Tikki to help defeat the akuma. Normally I wouldn’t recommend the kwamis using their powers outside their miraculous, but you waking up is a sign that everything went as planned. The both of them should be here any minute.”

Marinette took a minute to let Master Fu’s words sink in. So Chat had brought her here to protect her. That made sense, and she probably would have done the same thing if their roles were reversed. And she remembered the time his kwami, Plagg, had helped her defeat Style Queen and how much power the tiny god of destruction was capable of. She wondered what Tikki would look like using the power of creation outside of the earrings. Then she realized that if her earrings had been removed…

“Did Chat Noir see who I was?” Marinette blurted.

Master Fu shook his head and went to explain more, but stopped when he heard a knock at the front door.

“Wait here, Marinette” Master Fu said as he left the room and shut the door.

Marinette heard Chat’s voice in the other room and then Tikki flew into the room, going straight through the door.

“Welcome back Tikki! I heard you and Chat Noir got to finally meet” Marinette said, stroking Tikki’s face”

“We did! We can talk about that later though. For now…”

“Spots on!” Marinette said, letting the transformation turn her back into Ladybug.

She cracked open the door and Chat Noir’s eyes met hers. Something flashed there and then he grasped her into a hug.

“Ladybug! You’re okay! Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay.” Chat breathed, hugging her tighter

She hugged him back, suddenly overwhelmed with the worry she’d caused him.

“Chat,” She said, leaning back to face him, “what exactly happened?”

Chat went on to explain everything that had happened, but left out the part where she had screamed Adrien’s name, instead telling her that she had only screamed in general, and that he had brought her here. He also explained why the victim was akumatized and how he helped him.

Twice Ladybug got the feeling that, through the whole recount of events, Chat was holding something back.

The first was when, in her opinion, he’d paused a little too long after telling her she’d screamed out a few times. She didn’t necessarily feel like he was  _lying_ , just that there was something he wasn’t saying. She quickly brushed that off as her reading too deeply into his body language. If something else had happened, he would have told her.

The other time was when he was telling her the reason Julien had been akumatized. She couldn’t quite explain it, but it seemed like Chat took this akuma a little more personally than any of the others they’d encountered. Nothing in the story struck her as unique, but perhaps there was something that had struck a chord with Chat?

The concern she developed for Chat over the seconds it took for him to tell her the story was already eating her alive.

After Chat finished explaining, they both thanked Master Fu for his help and headed up to the roof.

“I can’t believe what you said Tikki can do! It sounds so beautiful. Makes me wish I could stop being Ladybug for a few seconds to watch for myself, you know?” Ladybug beamed, meeting Chat’s eyes as she plopped down on the ledge. She knew Chat probably thought they were going to part ways immediately when they’d reached the roof, but something inside was telling her that he had a lot on his mind and she wanted to make sure he was okay before he went home.

“I’ve seen Plagg use his power in my civilian form before! Maybe an opportunity will present itself for you and Tikki! It was pretty amazing though, not gonna lie” Chat mused as he sat down next to her

Ladybug hummed, and they both sat in a comfortable silence looking out over Paris.

“Hey Chat?”

“Yeah?”

“I…are you okay? When you were telling me about the akuma…” Ladybug started, but she stilled when Chat froze beside her.

For a second it seemed like Chat somehow hadn’t heard her; he made no move to respond. Ladybug felt her cheeks flush pink.  _I shouldn’t have asked. Either I crossed some line or nothing is wrong. He just looked so solemn inside…_

“A few years ago-” Chat started and Ladybug whipped her head to look at him, but he was still looking out toward the horizon, not meeting her eyes. She kept her eyes on his face for a moment before looking out again and just listening to him.

“A few years ago, my mom and dad told me they were going on a business trip and that they would be back in a month. They are both high up in the…careers they work in and so business trips weren’t super unusual. This one seemed very important though. They kept it very hush-hush and wouldn’t tell me much about it. I wasn’t super interested anyway. At the time I just accepted it without a second thought and told them I couldn’t wait for them to get back. I really didn’t think anything of it. But I wish I had. I would do anything to go back and tell them not to go.”

Chat paused and swallowed. Ladybug held her breath. They usually didn’t share details of their lives like this with each other. It was one of the unspoken rules woven into the promise of keeping their real identities a secret. But even if she needed to stop Chat from sharing something so deep, something she guessed didn’t have a happy ending, something he was likely still hurting from, she wasn’t going to stop him. There was nothing that could have convinced her to, nothing at all.

“A month later, I heard the door open and I ran downstairs with a movie already in my hands – it was a tradition of sorts, for me to welcome them back by picking out a movie for us all to watch – but—”

Ladybug’s heart wrenched as Chat furrowed his brows and set his lips into a line.

“But he was alone. Mom wasn’t with him. I wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong right at first, but father looked like he would have given anything to be anywhere other than in the same room as me. After seeing him like that, it wasn’t hard to guess.” Tears flowed down his cheeks and Ladybug felt her own eyes burning.

_Oh, Chat…_

Chat swiped at his eyes “My father, he wouldn’t even look at me. He told me there’d been an accident and that my mom wouldn’t be…that she…” Chat’s face scrunched up and he covered his mouth with his fist.

Ladybug wrapped her arms around Chat, and he collapsed into her, sobbing. She closed her eyes, cursing whoever was responsible for his mother’s death, cursing whoever his father was for how he’d handled it, cursing everything. She’d had no idea.

After a bit, Chat pulled back, eyes still closed and turned back out to face Paris. Once his breathing was back to normal he opened his eyes again and looked back to Ladybug.

“So” he continued, his voice still a little shaky, “When Julien told me his worst fear was losing his mom to a business trip, all these memories and feelings resurfaced and I just…I wasn’t prepared to think about it all. I hadn’t thought about all of it in a really long time,” he murmured.

“Chat,” Ladybug breathed, cupping his face and looking into his eyes, “I am so so sorry that happened. No one should have to lose a parent so young. And to not know why or what happened…I would be hurting too, Chat”

Chat nodded his head. “Thanks Ladybug. Thanks for listening to me. I…haven’t really talked about it with anyone. I couldn’t talk about it with my father and I couldn’t really talk about it with N-with anyone else either,” Chat smiled, “it feels good just to have someone who knows about it too. Someone who’s outside of it all.”

“I’m glad you shared it with me. Chat, you’re my best friend. I know we can’t talk about  _everything_  outright because of our secret identities…but if you ever need to talk about anything else, I’m sure we can find a way to. You shouldn’t have to bottle things up like that for so long, or to feel like you can’t talk to anyone.”

“Thanks, LB.” He smiled, standing up. Ladybug followed suit. “The same goes for you too. You can talk to me about anything.”

He paused and then grinned his signature Chat smirk, shooting her a look over his shoulder.

“Even about that guy you like. I promise I won’t bite” he winked at her, but she smiled. She could tell he meant it under the joke.

They both held each other’s eyes for another moment and Ladybug felt a surge of love for the boy in front of her bloom in her heart. It wasn’t the same love he felt for her, but she cared about him more than he knew.

“I probably need to get back home. You know, expectations and responsibilities and all that,” Chat said, rolling his eyes and grinning at her.

She chucked. “I’ll see you later Chat Noir.”

“Later LB, and…thanks again”

She nodded her head and she watched as he went to extend his baton. But he paused, turning back to her, half-smile on his lips and fist extended.

“Pound it?”

Ladybug couldn’t keep from grinning.

“Pound it!” She said, bumping her fist against his.

He turned back and jumped off the roof, bounding back to his normal life with each beat of his baton. Ladybug smiled after him for a moment before turning and heading back to her own life as well.

 

* * *

 

Later that night Marinette collapsed in bed, absolutely exhausted. Today had been one of the longest she’d had in a while and her conversation with Chat still lingered on her mind. She’d made sure to hug both her parents a little tighter than usual when she got home.

She wished Chat Noir could hug his mom again.

There were so many things she didn’t know about him. Things she hadn’t thought about or considered until he had opened up to her about this one thing. She wondered if there was anything else he was dealing with that he hadn’t been able to tell anyone.

She wondered if she could really talk to him about Adrien.

_No_ , she thought, _that would be cruel. If Chat’s feelings are as real for me as mine are for Adrien, that wouldn’t be fair to talk to him about it. I could barely handle Adrien mentioning he was interested in Kagami that one time, let alone if he gushed to me about how he adored her or something. I won’t do that to Chat._

She flipped over in bed, hugging a pillow close to her chest.

_It would be nice to have someone on the outside of it all know about it though. Someone besides the girls. Like how I know about his mom but I didn’t know his mom. He doesn’t know who I like, but he would at least know more about him. Plus, he’s one of my best friends. If I can trust him with my life, I can surely trust him with this. It would also be nice to have a guy know besides Nino. But, do I want him to know how much I like Adrien? I wonder what he would say…_

And with the thoughts of Adrien and Chat swirling in her mind, she drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later, Marinette shot up out of her bed, drenched in sweat. Her entire body was tingling the way it always did after she woke up from a nightmare. Her eyes were still foggy from sleep and her throat was hurting. As she tried to get her breathing under control, she wiped sweat away from her cheeks. Wait, no, not sweat.  _Had she been crying?_

Memories of the nightmare crashed back into her mind.

She was Ladybug. She was in a forest. She was riddled with confusion and then-

“Marinette!”

She jumped, looking over to see her mom and dad climbing in through her trapdoor.

“Marinette? We heard you screaming from our room. Is everything okay?”

Marinette was shocked. She desperately tried to grasp at the pieces of the nightmare that were slowly fading just beyond her reach.

“I’m okay…I just had a nightmare. But I’m okay now.”

Her mom glanced toward her dad. They shared a look but Marinette didn’t catch what passed between them. She was too busy trying to decipher the dream.

Her. Ladybug. The Woods. And then-

“Sweetie, I’m going to get you some water” her dad offered, and then disappeared, closing the trap door.

Marinette frowned. She felt like she was so close to figuring out what happened next. The woods and then-

“Did something happen with Adrien today?”

Marinette’s nerves lit up like a rocket.

“Whaaaat Adrien? Why haha that’s crazy-I don’t like Adrien of course I don’t why would you think that haha he’s just really cool!” Marinette said lamely and then internally cringed.

Sabine smiled, and softly said “I was just wondering because, well. You were screaming his name in your sleep.”

Marinette’s world imploded as the nightmare came back full force. She remembered every part of it, and even though she was awake Adrien’s screams echoed in her head without ceasing. She’d been running to find him and couldn’t and then—

And then she’d woken up at Master Fu’s.

She silently gasped at this realization and suddenly it was very hard to breathe again. Her father returned and she tried to hide what was going through her mind. She sipped on her water and insisted to her parents that she was really okay and that they could go back to sleep, mildly desperate for them to be out of earshot.

As soon as she heard their door close downstairs, she quietly shrieked  _“TIKKI!”_

Tikki flitted to her side, eyeing her warily.

“Marinette are you okay?”

She took a deep breath in through her nose and slowly thought over everything that had flashed through her mind a few minutes ago.

“Tikki…the nightmare I had earlier, during the akuma attack…when Chat told me I’d screamed in my sleep…I screamed Adrien’s name, didn’t I?” She shuddered, still hearing Adrien’s cries for Ladybug echoing in her mind.

Tikki looked worried, but nodded her head.

“So…Chat said that the akuma made people experience their worst fears. So my worst fear is losing Adrien…and not being able to save him?”

“Oh, Marinette,” Tikki murmured, stroking Marinette’s cheek “I had no idea. Neither of us knew what you were dreaming about, we only knew that you were screaming Adrien’s name.” Tikki softly reminded her.

Oh, yes. Right. Marinette took a second to explain the dream to Tikki.

“That must have been so frightening!” Tikki exclaimed.

“Oh, Tikki, I didn’t know what to do! And even worse, Chat heard me, as Ladybug, screaming Adrien’s name,” She finished, covering her face with her hands. It wasn’t a question. It was a fact, and Marinette wasn’t sure what she was going to do with this information.

On the one hand, Chat hadn’t brought it up. He probably didn’t know how to approach the subject and Marinette silently thanked him that he hadn’t done so back at Master Fu’s. She didn’t know what she would have said if she’d been questioned about Adrien, and by  _Chat_  of all people.

On the other hand, Adrien was a relatively popular name in Paris. For all Chat knew, Adrien could have been the name of her fish or something.

Flopping back on her bed, Marinette prayed Chat wouldn’t bring up anything to do with her nightmare or Adrien to her any time soon. She needed to think up an explanation before they saw each other again, whenever that would be.

She frowned then, also realizing that this made her more hesitant to talk to Chat about the fact that she liked Adrien. She was never going to tell Chat Adrien’s real name in the first place, but now she didn’t want to chance giving away any details that might point Chat in Adrien’s direction.

Marinette eventually circled back to why she was thinking about all of this in the first place and anxiety flashed through her nerves.

“Tikki, I have to go make sure Adrien is okay.”

“But Marinette, everything was set back to normal when I did the Lucky Charm earlier. If Adrien was in danger, he’s okay now.”

“I know that…I just can’t get the screams out of my head and they’re killing me” Marinette felt on the verge of tears “I’m afraid if I go right back to sleep the nightmare will just start up where it left off. I don’t want the last current memory I have of Adrien to be me struggling and failing to find him, all the while hearing him screaming my name”

“Aww Marinette.” Tikki said, hugging Marinette’s cheek “Of course we can go check on Adrien.”

Marinette smiled at her, before she quietly said “Spots On!” and sneaked up to her balcony.

 

* * *

 

Ladybug rested her foot on the window sill outside Adrien’s room. To her amazement, Adrien was sitting at his desk, obviously still awake. Upon seeing him, she felt her body relax tenfold. She knew he  _probably_  wasn’t being tortured in a forest somewhere, but it still made her feel much better to see him alive and well for herself. She let herself gaze at him another moment, unreasonably longing to hear the sound of his soft voice to replace his screams. Just seeing him would have to do. Smiling, she brought to mind one of her favorite memories of Adrien, the one where he was genuinely laughing after she accidentally closed his umbrella in on herself. She turned to swing away but stopped when she heard:

“Ladybug?”

She whipped her head and saw Adrien approaching the window. _Oh no, how am I going to explain this?_ Ladybug thought as she smiled and waved at Adrien. The window swung open and she stepped through the opening, hopping into his room.

“Ladybug, what a surprise! What are you doing here? Not that I don’t want you here, but, you know, it’s late. Is Chat Noir with you?” Adrien asked.

“No, its just me! And I’m here because…” Ladybug paused. Nothing. There was nothing in her brain except the awareness that she was alone with Adrien Agreste. In his room! Of all the times for her brain to fail her! Why was she here again?

An expression she couldn’t quite place, but that resembled concern, painted Adrien’s features, and to Ladybug’s surprise he hesitantly asked “Did you…by chance…have trouble sleeping?”

Ladybug felt her eyebrows shoot up and she almost keeled over as Adrien’s screams crashed their way back into her mind. She swayed back against the window for support and Adrien rushed over, but Ladybug put her hands up.

“I’m okay, I’m okay. But yes, I, ah…”

And then as Adrien looked at her with genuine concern, the gate between her brain and her mouth blasted open, and everything flowed out before she could stop herself:

“I got hit by the akuma earlier and he made people experience…a nightmare. And mine was about you, even though I don’t know why ha-ha-ha, but apparently I was screaming? And not only that, I was screaming out your name! I didn’t remember that, or even the nightmare itself, but I just had it again and now I understand why! You were screaming my name somewhere deep in a forest and I was running as fast as I could, but  _I couldn’t find you_  and your screams were destroying me and I just, you just sounded like you were being tortured and it was breaking me and—” Ladybug paused.

One, because she was completely mortified that she’d admitted all of this to Adrien, who she  _barely_  knew on a personal level as Ladybug.

And two, because he looked very distraught at what she’d just said.

“—aaaand I’ve definitely said too much. I’m just glad to see you’re okay! I shouldn’t have bothered you about this. Bug out!”

Ladybug felt Adrien’s hand on her shoulder and she turned back around to see an array of emotions crossing his face. First, and very obviously, shock. And then bewilderment and concern. Ladybug could have sworn hope also crossed his eyes, but before she could be sure Adrien seemed to settle on softness and Ladybug felt her heart rate kick up a notch.

“No, its okay! I’m really glad you came to check on me. I would have been worried about you too, you know, if I’d had a nightmare about you” he admitted, blushing and looking bashfully at his feet. It was all Ladybug could do to quiet the hammering of her heart. “But!” He looked up at her, smile back on his face “I’m fine, as you can see! But are you okay? You seem a little shaken up from the nightmare.”

Ladybug smiled and nodded her head.

“I wasn’t okay, but I am now. I really am glad to see that you’re safe. And thanks for listening to me ramble on.”

She beamed at him and, to her heart’s content, he beamed right back at her.

With a solemn sigh, she glanced toward the window and said “It is late though, so I really should get going. Good night, Adrien.”

Before she could take a step toward the window though, she felt Adrien slip his hands into hers. She glanced back at him and her lips parted as she felt the full intensity of his softened green eyes. He gently leaned a little closer, leaving inches between their faces.

“Have a good night, Ladybug,” Adrien whispered, squeezing her hands before letting go.

She nodded, a little dazed as she took a step back. She stepped up on the window and gave one last dazzled wave before swinging back to her house.

She landed on her balcony and walked slowly to her trapdoor, letting her transformation drop. Marinette relished in the warmth that had spread all over her body from where Adrien had touched her shoulder, unable to wipe the grin off her face as she slid into bed. Her fingers still tingled and she pressed them to her cheeks, curling up and scrunching her toes at the memory of  _Adrien Agreste holding her hands_. To her delight, that tingling warmth from his hands lingered on hers, and she replayed the gentle  _Have a good night, Ladybug_  over and over as she drifted off to sleep. She could say with full confidence that he was the sole reason that in place of her nightmare, her dreams were filled with brushing fingertips, sweet smiles, and longing looks from the sweet, blonde-headed boy who just so happened to have her heart.


End file.
